French Language and Culture Minor
Engage with enduring art, iconic cuisine, and a language spoken around the world in a minor that covers just as much ground.
College of Arts & Sciences | On-Campus
Program Options
All of the majors and minors in the World Languages and Cultures Department build your ability to communicate linguistically and cross-culturally through service learning, immersive study, travel, and other opportunities to practice your skills in the real world.
French Language and Culture Minor
This 18-credit minor includes 12 hours of language classes plus six hours of electives in topics including African diaspora studies, art, economics, English, history, marketing, music, philosophy, religion, and political science.
Meet the Faculty
You’ll learn from French instructors with years of experience, who’ve taught in classrooms from the U.S. to France and Africa. In the process, you’ll tap into their perspectives on living and working among other cultures as you broaden your own worldview.
Dr. Eduardo García-Villada
Associate Professor, Second Language Acquisition; Department Co-Chair, World Languages and Cultures
Dr. Marc Pinheiro-Cadd
Associate Professor, World Languages and Culture; Department Co-Chair, World Languages and Culture
Outside the Classroom
There’s more to learning a foreign language than building your vocabulary and learning grammar. To communicate, you’ll need to connect with the culture—opportunities you’ll have in class and far beyond.
Study Abroad and Exchange Opportunities
Immerse yourself in an entirely new environment in which you’ll engage and strengthen your language skills—an experience where you’ll gain confidence, contacts, and life-long friends. Drake faculty and staff can help you plan to study in a French-speaking country.
Language Teaching Endorsement
Earn the credentials needed to teach French in a K-12 classroom through a joint program with Drake’s School of Education. Available to students majoring in elementary or secondary education.
Student Organizations and Cultural Events
Participate in on-campus events that celebrate Francophone culture, or join Alpha Mu Gamma, a national honor society that promotes language study and awareness in Des Moines and beyond.
Service Learning
Put your language skills to work in the Des Moines community through service-learning projects, volunteering, and cultural activities at local schools, after-school programs, and community centers.
Outstanding Achievement Award
Exceptional students proficient in both language skills and global and cultural understanding may earn this recognition.
Careers & Skills
Global citizenship is a vital part of a Drake education. In Drake’s Minor in French Language and Culture program, you’ll become especially adept at the language skills and cultural knowledge that can propel you to a career either working in another country or with a U.S.-based employer that has interests in French-speaking regions.
In addition, many WLC graduates have received the Fulbright Scholarship or gone on to attend international graduate schools. Whatever path you take, you’ll be part of a department eager to help you find success while you’re a student and after you graduate.
Opportunities
- Advertising/marketing
- Education
- Environmental science
- Foreign service
- Government
- Healthcare
- Law
- Museums
Skills
- Demonstrate the ability to communicate competently through reading, writing, listening, and speaking
- Gain an understanding of the societies, histories, and contributions of the regions in which French is spoken
- Learn to see the world and your own culture through a global lens
- Cultivate intercultural understanding with appreciation for diversity, including a broad base of knowledge and perspectives of related cultures
- Develop the skills to collaborate with people from other cultures
Take the Next Step
To learn French is to open a door into new realms of diplomacy, cuisine, art, business, and many other fields. See how a Minor in French Language and Culture can complement your other studies at Drake.
